Billionaire businessman Donald Trump won the New Hampshire Republican primary Tuesday while Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a veteran politician who has delivered an upbeat conservative message at odds with Trump and most of the other candidates, won second place.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, polar opposites on the campaign trail, appeared in a close race for third place, showing the continuing volatility of the race.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio trailed behind them but was in striking distance with about 35% of the precincts reporting.
A roar of cheers erupted at Trump’s election-night party when CNN projected him the winner shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. The Associated Press and TV networks also projected a Trump victory based on exit polls and early returns showing he had a large lead.
Over and over, the crowd of hundreds chanted, “Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!”
Several candidates fought to show they are the top alternative to Trump, an unconventional candidate who has fueled his lead in national polls, in part, by attacking both the Democratic and Republican establishments.
Trump was given virtually no chance of winning the nomination when he declared his candidacy last summer.
The New York real estate developer was widely derided by opponents for his crude language, harsh views on immigrants and women, and personal attacks on rival candidates.
But GOP voters rallied to his side almost from the start, and the brash businessman with no political experience soon surged higher in the polls – increasing his lead nearly every time he broke with political convention.
“The silent majority is very angry,” said Donna Horvit, 58, a retired food business owner who lives in Londonderry, N.H. and attended Trump’s victory rally Tuesday night. Voters are “looking for a refreshing non-politician politician, if you know what I mean.”
Voters stood in long lines at polling places all day Tuesday to register their favorites in the fiercely contested primary. Some polls remained open an extra hour to accommodate the large crowds.
Exit polls conducted by a consortium of television networks and the Associated Press showed 9 of 10 Republican voters were either dissatisfied with the federal government or downright angry.
And 48% of those polled said they were more eager for an outsider to lead them, more than the 47% who said experience was a priority.
And in perhaps the biggest blow to the establishment, only one in ten Republican voter ranked electability as the top quality they were seeking in a nominee.
Trump’s priorities ruled the day, according to preliminary exit surveys: two-thirds of New Hampshire’s Republican voters said they favored a temporary ban on Muslims, a polarizing policy espoused by Trump.
Trump had been favored to bounce back from his second-place finish in the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses. But the outcome was never certain.
Nearly half of Republican voters, 46%, made up their minds in just the past few days, according to exit polls.
September Hoeler confessed to being a bit overwhelmed as she arrived Tuesday morning at her polling place in Bedford. “It’s going to be eenie-meenie-minie-moe,” said the 58-year-old Republican.
The main fight appeared to be for second place and the chance to emerge as an alternative to Trump and Cruz, the winner of Iowa. Cruz is a favorite of religious conservatives but is loathed by the party’s establishment .
The competition was chiefly between Cruz, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Bush, and Rubio, who sought to recover from a shaky debate Saturday night.
Each of them talked about continuing to the next contest, the Feb. 20 primary in South Carolina. But the results here is likely to winnow the field, just as Iowa did.
Bush, Christie and Kasich virtually staked their entire campaigns on New Hampshire; the latter two in particular devoting the overwhelming majority of their time and resources to winning over Granite State voters.
The number of delegates at stake — 23 — is a tiny fraction of the 1,237 needed to win the Republican nomination.
The import of the primary here rests on the momentum it will deliver to the candidates seen as winners and the blow suffered by those who finish far back or otherwise fail to perform up to expectations.
While Trump seemed likely to carry on and Cruz looked forward to more hospitable terrain in South Carolina, a state with a large number of Christian conservatives, others in the field were counting for a boost from New Hampshire to sustain them.
Rubio had potentially the most to gain and lose, having come out of Iowa well positioned after a stronger-than-expected third-place finish, suggesting he could be the candidate the party establishment rallies behind.
Then came Saturday night’s debate, in which he come under withering assault for mechanically repeating over and over the same lines from his campaign stump speech. Christie and others seized on his shaky performance to question his preparedness for the presidency.
Democrats happily joined in the pile-on. As Rubio dropped by a series of polling places Tuesday, he was trailed by two Democratic operatives made up to look like robots.
As Rubio’s support appeared to falter Tuesday night, supporters who gathered a Radisson ballroom in Manchester appeared downcast.
“We were hoping for a strong second,” said Peter Heed, 65, a lawyer and former district attorney from Keene. “It’s going to be tough now.”
“I’ve never seen him stumble like that,” he added. “I think that hurt. Talking to a few people I know, they just said, ‘What happened? What happened?’”
sOURCE : LA Times
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